Dempo thumped Kolkata giant Mohun Bagan by a clear 3-0 margin, occupied the second position of I-League.

          Dempo thumped Kolkata giant Mohun Bagan by a clear 3-0 margin today in the 8^th round encounter of I-League at Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, Fatorda today, climbed up in the second position of I-League ladder just behind East Bengal. Joaquim Abranches scored the first in the 39^th minute of the game, just after 2 minutes Ryuji Sueoka doubled the lead from the spot, Godwin Franco scored the third in the 70^th minute of the match.

         Armando Colaso made few changes in his side due to the suspension of experienced gamemaker Climax Lawrence & injury of Koko Sakibo, he introduced Joaquaim Abranches & Anthony Perera from the beginning. Newly appointed Mohun Bagan coach also made few changes, he introduced experienced customer Mehrajuddin Wadoo in central defence in the place of injured Eche & Biswajit Saha in the place of injured Syed Rahim Nabi.

          Both the side started in a very positive node. The result might have described a different story but Mohun Bagan fought equally before swallowing the first goal.

         Within 3 minutes Clifford Miranda took a volley almost from the 40 yards away, went past the visitor custodian Shilton Paul, denied by the crossbar. Just after that incident Odafa in business, past two defenders, placed the ball in front of empty goal, unfortunately no teammates were in there to place the ball inside. In the 9^th minute Sabeeth missed a blind sitter following a goal bound through from Odafa.

         The visitors started to dominate the game, started to create chances after chances, Odafa fouled just outside the box in the 19^th minute of the game due to a failed defending attempt by Rowlison Rodriguez, referee has given free kick to Mohun Bagan from a decent position, Odafa himself taken that & ballooned that far away of the post.

         Fabulously Odafa dodged five opponent defenders & put the ball in front of a blind goal for upcoming Lalrin Fela in the 34yh minute, who miraculously failed to find the target.

        Armando Colaso had introduced speedy Romeo Fernandez in the place of Anthony Perera, which became effective for his side. Joaquim scored the first goal  for the homeside against the comlete run of the play following a centre from Romeo from the right side of the box in the 39^th minute of the game. Biswajit Saha the left back of Mohun Bagan let Romeo run with the ball & central defender Mehraj also failed to clear that.

        Two minutes after that Peter Carvallho of Dempo was clearly tackled from the behind by Nirmal Chhetri of Mohun Bagan, referee Balusubraniam spotted towards the spot & warned Nirmal by showing yellow, Ryouji Suoeka didn’t make any mess to convert it from the spot & doubled the lead for the hosts.

        Mohun Bagan started to counter allout from the beginning of the second half, Odafa tested the Dempo custodian Kuttimani in the 52^nd minute of the game, who was introduced due to the injury of Subashish Roychowdhury, rescued his side in the exchange of a corner.

        Biswajit Saha of Mohun Bagan got marching order following a second yellow for his tackle to Godwin Franco, the foul was not intentional, its quite unfortunate for him to had the second yellow which forced Mohun Bagan to 10 men & droopy for the rest of the period.

         Its very difficult to survive with a man short against a mighty side like Dempo in their home. Armando Colaso introduced the EPL star Rohan Rickkets in the 60^th minute, pressures started to mountain on Mohun Bagan defence.

        Godwin Franco sealed the match by scoring the third for his side by a world class volley from almost 35yards outside the box in the 70^th minute of the game.

        Currently Dempo are rightly trailing league topper East Bengal with having 19 points in their kitty from 8 matches while Mohun Bagan stepped down at number six with 11 points from the same number of matches. Moreover Mohun Bagan failed to win since last seven matches against Dempo in any kind of competition. Kolkata derby is knocking the door, reminding that here a win could boost the visitors while it pushed them towards more disaster.

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East Bengal edge past Salgaocar by 1-0 margin, remain on the top of the table.

             Kolkata giant East Bengal beat Salgaocar 1-0 margin in their 8^th round clash of I-League at Salt Lake stadium today, secure their place on the top of the table. Edeh Chiddi scored the priceless solitary goal for the home side on the 66th minute of the match.

         This was a battle of two experienced coaches Trevor Morgan & David Booth, belong to a same nation England. Win was necessary for the both the sides, East Bengal needed it for retaining their position on the top while Salgaocar needed it for coming out of the relegation zone.

         Morgan & Booth started with the same line up they used in their previous matches. East Bengal with Chiddi & Manandeep in up front while Salgaocar started with a lone striker formation with Sean Rooney only in the up front.

          Both the sides had their chances in the first half. East Bengal seeking of home advantage started to dominate the game from the beginning, they could have a very early lead if Arnab Mondal could nest the ball from Mehtab’s corner. Sean Rooney of Salagaocar also failed to convert in front of the six yard box. Mannandeep also spoilted the chances in few occasions, Penn Orji also made a blunder from the inside of the box.

           In the second half the Red & Gold brigade became desperate to score, Penn Orji started to dominate the midfield, following a through ball from Penn, Chiddi tried to test visitor’s custodian Karanjit by a volley from the left side of the box, Karnajit exactly predicted & dived towards the right direction of that volley but unfortunately his own teammate Rocas Lemere guided the ball by a poor clearance attempt deflection towards the other direction to past inside the net, Karanjit remained a silent visitor.

         After that goal both the sides had few more chances, they failed to convert, of course the visitors had a golden opportunity to equalize in the death while their captain Luciano Sabrosa headed the ball in the hand of East Bengal goalkeeper Gurpreet Sing Sandhu following a corner from Francis Fernandez.

         Now East Bengal are leading the table with 20 points from 8 matches while Salgaocar is standing on 11^th position with 6 points from the equal number of matches. East Bengal is the only side to swallow only a single goal in eight matches of this year’s I-League yet.

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Mano Menezes sacked by Brazil Football Association, Pep Guardiola likely to take over the responsibility.

         Brazil Football Confederation sacked current coach Mano Menezes barely before 18 months of the mega event World Cup 2014 they are going to host due to his failure in the Olympic final in London last summer when Brazil fell to Mexico by a clear 0-2 margin & following a defeat to Argentina in the second leg of the final of Superclassico De America where they still managed to win ultimately in the penalty shoot out also the quick elimination from the quarter stage of the Copa America brought anger amongst all. He is completely unable to deliver consistently deliver convincing performance.

            Menezes is the right successor of Dunga, he took the responsibility when Dunga fell to cross the hurdle of the quarter stage of the World Cup 2010 against Netherlands & when first choice Muricy Ramalho rejected to take the national duty due to his contract with Flumienese.

           During his tenure he is never liked the by the legends of the country like Pele, Romario & few other greats. He is also disputed by the current Brazil FA president Jose Maria Marin who also cleared his intension by saying he will appoint coach he trusts at the expense of those appointed by his predecessor. He is not at all popular amongst the fan of Brazil football worldwide too.

          After taking responsibility from Dunga he started with 4-2-3-1 formation which actually doesn’t suit with Brazil’s offensive dynamic playing style rather it reminds us the European style. Afterall Brazil is never known for their defensive excellencies so it was quite idiotic job to change a complete formation of a team like Brazil.

          He coached Brazil for 33 matches, leading it to 21 victories, six losses and six draws. The main complaint against Menezes was that his team struggled in games against top teams and only beat the weaker sides. In his tenure Brazil was beaten by Argentina, Germany, France & Mexico, hardly managed to win against the minnows like South Africa by 1-0 margin at home in last September.

          The Brazil football association is yet to announce anything regarding their new recruitment but the rumor is everywhere going on that retired Barcelona boss Pep Guardilloa is ready to take over the duty of the five times world champions soon, news published by an insider & close mate of Guradiola.

          Director of Brazil football Confederation Andres Sanchez cleared that he would be complete against hiring a foreign coach & the decision would be taken on the upcoming new year. Whoever is going to be appointed wiln’t have muchmore time to settle the side before the Confederation cup 2014 in home soil, only six months away from now.

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Mohun Bagan failed to overcome the barrier of Mumbai.F.C. match ended in an 1 all stalemate.

         Kolkata giant Mohun Bagan failed to secure 3 points against the back bencher of I-League ladder Mumbai. F. C, match ended in an 1 all stalemate in the sevent round encounter of I-League at Balewadi Sports Complex ground, Pune today. Odafa puts the visitors ahead from an excellent free-kick on the 21^st minute of the game but they failed to hold that, veteran Abhishek Yadab scored the equalizer for the hosts in the minute of the game.

        Mohun Bagan reached Pune today to play their first game under the supervision of newly recruited coach Karim Bencharifa, lots of expectations were mounting between the Green & Maroon supporters. He has taken the batton from the hand of Mridul Banerjee, who has guided Mariners towards two convincing victories against Sporting Clube & Salgaocar at home & a goalless draw against ONGC in the away match. So it has to be told that from somewhere it seems that Mridul is the better eligible to handle the critical situation, afterall he took the responsibility when the side lost two of their starting matches in the I-League campaign.

         No midfield, no defence, no blocking, poor goalkeeping, wrong strategy of Karim Bencharifa, one man army Mohun Bagan fortunate enough to have 1 point atleast from their away match today, only Odafa remains as a glittering star in between all those failures.

       Odafa scored the goal from an excellent free-kick at the 21^st minute from the left side of the box, the hosts custodian failed to get rid of that swerving shot.

         Syed Rahim Nabi left the ground due to an injury in the very early moments of the game, after that it was very hard to find out any co-ordination between defence, midfield & forwardline. Due to the injury of two key defenders Eche & Mehrajuddin, Karim started Nirmal Chhetri & Aibar in the deep defence, but during the match both of them looked like the living being of different planet, completely mismatched with their duty.

        Veteran Yusif Yakubu was leading all the attacks for the hosts in the Mohun Bagan defence, the attacks were coming like a tide on the visitors defence, sometimes safehands of Shilton Pal rescued visitors but one major fault of that same Shilton graced the hosts to equalize.

        Abhishek Yadav followed a long ball & headed right into the Mohun Bagan net at the 62^nd minute of the game. Entire Mariners defence looked like a silent viewer during that goal, poor outing of the custodian Shilton made the situation easier to let the ball go inside the net.

Currently Mohun Bagan is standing on the 5^th position of the I-League table with 11 points from7 matches while Mumbai F.C is on the 8^th position with 7 points from 7 matches.

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